Outdoor Lighting

On February 25, 2019 the Town Council of the Town of Westlake adopted Ordinance 879 which amended the Outdoor Lighting Standards of the Town of Westlake.

Summary

The Town of Westlake has always set itself apart from neighboring communities and it makes no exception to that rule with its Outdoor Lighting regulations. On January 22, 2001 the Town of Westlake adopted its first comprehensive look into outdoor lighting for the Town of Westlake and also established the groundwork for becoming a dark skies city through Ordinance 386. The goal of the Ordinance 879 adopted on February 25, 2019 very much remains true to the spirit and intent of the original framework provided by Ordinance 386. That is to:

Adaptive Lighting Control

New lighting should aim to achieve one of the below lighting control measures:

Automatic Switching System

Motion Sensing

Dimmable

Plans and Permits

Legal Nonconformance

As of February 25, 2019 all lighting not in compliance with Ordinance 879, but lawfully in place, will have the status of legal-nonconforming. That is, they are allowed to continue in their current state until one of the circumstances stated below occurs:

A change or addition to an existing lighting system

A change or addition to an existing building which increases the size by more than 20% of the original footprint

Plan Submittal

All new lighting must include the following in their plans:

A site plan of the proposed fixture locations

A photometric showing luminous area of each fixture measured in foot-candles

The average lighting level of the development

The lamp type and height of the fixture

The type of illumination

The cut-off angles

The number of lumens and wattage of each fixture

The correlated color temperature of each fixture measured in Kelvins

Permit

Change in lighting for an existing building, structure, street, parking lots or other outdoor lighting will require an electrical permit.